charity, but the wisest and most politic mea- tion of our nature,—or, directing our view "The advantages of such instruction have been felt and proved, wherever the experiment has been tried." (p. 33.) After adducing some instances in proof of this assertion, Mr. Bernard adverts to the apprehensions enter tained by some individuals lest "The prevalence of other schools than those of our own persuasion, and the zeal and activity of the conductors of those schools, should produce, on the rising generation, effects unfavourable to our national and established Church. If it should appear to temperate men, that such an apprehension is not entirely groundless, the consequences will be too important to be neglected: and the causes will ap. pear to be too deeply founded in real and existing circumstances, to admit of any other prevention, except what I trust all our Christian brethren will rejoice in, the adoption, on our part, of the same extended and general system of EDUCATION, regulated according to the rites and doctrines of the Church of England. Whoever, indeed, is anxious for the duration and prosperity of our establishment, whether in Church or in State, must be interested in the adoption of a prudent and practicable extension of the means of education;so that its benefits may be offered to every individual; as a preservative, not only for youth, but for the other ages of the poor, against the taint of sedition and the poison of infidelity." (p. 37, 38.) We very earnestly pray, that the Almighty may dispose the hearts of our rulers to attend to these important suggestions, and to take effectual mea sures for the amelioration of the moral condition of the people entrusted to their care, since it is righteousness alone which can truly ennoble and exalt a nation. The letter of Mr. Bernard is followed by an account of the FreeChapel Schools, in West-Street, Seven Dials, by John Dougan, Esq. We shall lay before our readers the substance of it. On the 3d of May, 1802, there were opened in West-street, in the parish of St. Giles, day schools for 200 children of the poor in that neighbourhood. They have since been increased to 240. The schools are of the established Church, and connected with the free-chapel in West-street; where the children attend divine service on Sundays, morning and evening, and Tuesday evenings and also on Thursday mornings, from nine o'clock to one, being the time fixed for their public examination. For the education of each child, the parent pays, in advance, and in almost every instance with great regularity, a shilling a month; and there is reason to believe, that, if the school-house were adapted to receive 500 children, instead of 240, it would soon be filled. The The only persons employed in them are a master and two mistresses; dividing between them the charge of 240 children, collected in three separate schools. salary of the master is £.50. a-year, and of the two mistresses £.32. and £.30. a-year; for coals and candles for the schools, and the cleaning of the house, the master is allowed £.16. 10s. a-year. The charge for house-rent, &c. is £.50. ayear. Of books, paper, &c. the annual expence is about £.15. To this will remain to be added the sum of £90. for clothing 90 of the children, who are the nominees of annual subscribers of one guinea each, or of benefactors of ten guineas each. There are also, on this establishment, Sunday-schools for 100 additional children, who are not paid for by their parents. The children of all the schools attend in the Free-chapel on Sundays*, and lead the psalmody of it with great correctness and intelligence. *This has increased the congregation at the Free-chapel, not only on Sundays, but at the Tuesday evening lectures; many of their parents attending out of curiosity at first to see their children, and to hear them sing. Of these parents, the greater part are now become regular frequenters of the chapel, and devout and attentive hearers. The total expenditure of the Dayschools and Sunday-schools, being £.283. 10s. is provided as follows:-1st. by £.84. of annual subscriptions; 2dly. by £.156. paid by the poor for their children's education, at thirteen shillings a-year for each child; and thirdly, by the produce of two morning and two evening charity sermons, producing together about £.50. making tions for non-residence has been renewed. JAMAICA. The colonial legislature of this island, by a law which passed on the 17th of December last, has prohibited unqualified preachers from teaching and performing the services of religion in assemblies of negroes. The offending preacher is to be taken into custody, and confined to hard labour one month for the first offence, and six months for every repetition of the offence. together a total of £.290. and leaving a trifling balance to answer contingent expences. When the cost of clothing the 90 children is deducted, the current expence of these schools for 240 children, and of the Sunday-schools for 100 children (in so unfavourable a situation as the centre of St. Giles's), will not exceed by more than £.37. 10s. the payments which the parents willingly make for their chil-trary to the spirit of British Jurispru dren's instruction. The visitor of these schools, though he will not perceive any forced and immediate change in children who have been so long neglected, yet he will view with pleasure their advancement in cleanliness, de cency, and order. "The effect of the Thursday's examination, which continues from nine to one o'clock, in giving energy and activity to the children's minds, is very striking. It sometimes consists of the church catechism divided into short queries, and attended with explanatory observations, and questions, on the master's part; and sometimes of a chapter in the Bible, accompanied with similar questions and explanations, addressed to them in such a manner as to fix their attention, and to improve their understanding. The account closes with an observation which is no less true than forcible; that "it is to the very general establishment of parish schools in Scotland, and to the power thereby given to parents to obtain the essential part of education at a moderate expence, that the Scotch are indebted for the valuable part of their national character." (p. 41—51). The remainder of the report contains some very important papers on the subject of Cotton-mills, but our limits will not allow us to give an account of them. Sir William Scott has been prevented by indisposition from bringing forward his proposed measure for regulating the residence of the clergy, but as soon as he is able to attend his duty in parliament, it is his intention to proceed with it. His views upon the subject, we understand, have undergone a considerable modification since he first introduced it to the House of Commons. In the meantime, the bill for suspending prosecu This singular enactment, so con dence, has, happily, to receive the sanction of his Majesty before it can be considered as a permanent law of the colony: it has, however for the present, all the force of law. We have little doubt, that his Majesty, friendly as he has uniformly shewn himself to the principles of toleration, and to the rights of conscience, will mark with his disapprobation this proceeding of the Assembly of Jamaica. When a similar law was passed about ten years ago, by the legislature of St. Vincent, his Majesty was graciously pleased to signify that he could by no means give it his sanction. pre The cruelty and injustice of the sent law is considerably enhanced by the utter want of every species of religious instruction, in which the negroes of Jamaica are left by their masters. It is also well known, that the clergy of that island do not regard the negroes as a part of their spiritual charge; and that in very few of the twenty parishes into which the island is divided, is divine service performed above two or three times in the year. The negroes, therefore, are shut out from every means of religious knowledge, except such as irre gular teachers may afford them: but even this resource is now cut off. We may fairly presume, that the measure we are now considering originated, not in any fear of danger from the disloyalty of the preachers, or from the effect of their instructions in weakening the spirit of subordination among the slaves, but from the same dislike to religion, which causes so general and remarkable a neglect, and even contempt, of its ordinances as is well known to prevail throughout the island. The planters of Jamaica cannot be ignorant of the happy effects, which the labours of unqualified preachers, as they are called in the act, have produced in the Island of Antiguaeffects which have proved of the highest benefit, not to the negro only, by the new hopes, desires, affections, principles, and motives, with which religion has inspired him; but to the master also, who has found the reward of his humane toleration in the increased fidelity, loyalty, industry, and affection of his converted slaves. VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. A VERY general apprehension of the renewal of hostilities between this country and France was suddenly excited by the following message from his Majesty, delivered on the 8th instant, to both Houses of Parliament, viz. "G. R.-His Majesty thinks it necessary to acquaint the House, that as very considerable Military Preparations are now carrying on in the Ports of France and Holland, his Majesty thinks it expedient to adopt measures of precaution for the safety of his Dominions. Although these preparations are avowedly directed to Colonial Purposes, yet, as great and important discussions are now carrying on between his Majesty and the French Government, the issue of which may be uncertain, and his Majesty being solicitous for the continuance of Peace, is induced to make this communication, in the full persuasion, that whatever may be the event, he may rely with perfect confidence on the public spirit and liberality of his faithful Commons, to take such measures as shall conduce to the honour of his Crown, the safety of his Dominions, and the essential interest of his People." An address, expressed in nearly the same terms with the message, was voted on the following day. In this address, Parliament is understood to have concurred, only on the general principle of being ready to support his Majesty, in maintaining the honour of his crown and the security of the empire. The points in dispute have not been disclosed by administration. Both the Parliament and the nation, therefore, are obliged to suspend their judgment respecting the chief circumstances which have occasioned his Majesty's communication, as well as the present naval and military preparations. The ministry, however, stand pledged to lay the whole of the negotiation before Parliament in the event of war; and we trust that they will make the propriety of their conduct clear, not only to men possessed of a more than ordinary share of national pride and jealousy, not only to political friends and partizans, but to the common understanding of the nation. It is impossible for a Christian Observer to contemplate the probability of being again involved in hostilities, without anxiety and pain. War, however mitigated by the practice of civilized nations, is one of the greatest of human evils; and the recurrence of it, after so short an interval, must be more than ordinarily calamitous to both nations. The chief danger to this country arises, in our apprehension, not from a defect of wisdom and energy in our councils, or from a dearth of able generals and admirals; not from the want of a sufficient superiority in our navy, or of pre-eminent valour in our army, or from any inability or indisposition in our people to resist sudden invasion; but from sources of a very different kind. We are a mercantile, manufacturing, rich, and luxurious people. We are, at the same time, burthened heavily with taxes, and indisposed to bear the augmentation of them. We are too apt to complain even of necessary evils; and though, in general, sufficiently prompt to resent a national injury, we are by no means patient of those long continued privations, which a protracted war must occasion. Popular discontents are apt to rise up among us. Our poor are disposed to impute to the government the unavoidable trials of their state, and those of them who live in our manufacturing towns are peculiarly dissolute. The more opulent classes are corrupted, in no small degree, by their wealth. Their dissipation exceeds that of former times. Infidelity also has made considerable advances among us. It pleased God lately to visit us with a long war, and having too little regarded his judgments, we have reason to fear lest his wrath should be again kindled against us. "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return." Jer. v. 3. During the late contest, this nation was remarkably disposed to value it seif on account of the superiority of its cause, forgetting that a cause may be good, and that those engaged in it may, nevertheless, be justly liable to the divine chastisement for their of fences. We boasted that we were Christians, and charged the French with rejecting the Gospel. of Christ and even proclaiming their apostacy. We did not consider how nominal was a great part of our Christianity, and how superior were our advantages both as Protestants and members of a free country. We forgot that we transgressed against the light; while the very religion of France had been for ages debased by superstition; and while also their former government had been only a mitigated despotism. God did not assert our cause in the manner expected by us. Our own corruptions fought against us. The radical evils of our system in the West Indies appeared from the necessity of sending thither, in the commencement of the war, a large force which was unable to endure the climate; a force which might, perhaps, have accomplished the most important objects on the continent. Many of our people were turbulent and disaffect ed; and the lower classes in Ireland rose up in rebellion. Our sailors, made true to us by discipline, much more than by their being taught to fear God and honour the King, mutinied on more than one occasion. Our political parties fought vehemently against each other, and some individuals among them seemed almost as much disposed to favour the disaffected, as to resist the common enemy. The men of middling rank grew weary of their burthens, and were at length impatient of the only species of tax which was likely to meet the alarming exigences of the occasion In the midst of these circumstances we experienced some signal interpositions of Providence, and at a most unexpected moment it pleased God to send us peace. It is to be feared, however, that this blessing, instead of raising in us gratitude for the divine goodness, has led to much abuse of his gifts, to a more than ordinary degree of thoughtlessness and dissipation, and in many to a more unrestrained pursuit of vicious pleasures. Here then is our real danger. There is a degree of corruption in the land, which, if left to produce its own natural consequences, may, under some very supposeable circumstances, bring on the most tremendous evils; and our chief fear ought to be lest the Almighty, seeing us regardless of his judgments, and insensible to his past deliverances, should withdraw his special protection. We wish not to inspire despondency; far from it. We are anxious only to warn our countrymen against relving on human means for their deliverance. We are desirous of reminding them, that our strength consists not in navies or in armies, but in the favour of the Almighty. We have often lamented, that on the occasion of every new war, the appeal is apt to be made rather to our national pride than to our sense of duty. It is not because we swell with a consciousness of our importance that we ought to go to war, but upon a sober estimate of our obligations, in the sight of God, to take up arms in defence of those invaluable blessings by which we are distinguished. We should, undoubtedly, enter into a new war with some great advantages. The chief of these would be, the strong persuasion which the country, as we trust, would have of the indisposition of ministers unnecessarily to embark in it. They who made the peace are not likely to make war in less than two years, without some strong ground for it. We have also the benefit of now more fully knowing, that the promises of the French to improve our constitution for us are completely fallacious. The enemy also, with whom we have to contend, is understoood to be, not the French nation, but Bonaparte, whose true character is well known and duly appreciated. This man, an unbeliever in France, a Papist in Italy, a Mussulman in Egypt, has again be come a Papist in the hope of consolidating his authority. He has moreover destroyed every spark of liberty in the land which he governs. He has silenced the press, filled the capital with his spies, and the country with his soldiers. He has interdicted public debate, and excluded the principle of representation; has established in favour of military men, his only order of merit, and, under the name of consul, has assumed more than imperial authority. He has trampled on the rights of neighbouring independent nations; has probably projected in his own mind the most extensive foreign aggressions; and has shewn himself, by many concurrent proofs, the peculiar and inveterate enemy of this coun try. In opposing the encroachments of such an enemy, every hand and heart in the country will, as we trust, be firmly and cordially united. May it please God, in his providence, to avert from us the necessity of measuring our strength with that of this modern Caesar; or if he calls us to the combat, may he endue us both with firmness and humility, and with confidence in his divine protection. May we learn to lay aside our selfish passions, and be ready to make those large sacrifices which will unquestionably be necessary even for our immediate safety; and especially may the true Christians of the land set the example of ready obedience to the calls of government, and of a liberal and enlightened patriotism. FRANCE. About the close of last month, an important state paper was addressed by the First Consul to the Legislative Body. It contains such an exposition of the internal state and external relations of France, as Bonaparte wishes to exhibit in the eyes of the French and of Europe. He represents the wise measures adopted by government, to have universally produced the most beneficial effects, and to have greatly promoted the national prosperity. With regard to his foreign policy, it is plain that he thinks it sufficient to justify any step he may take that it tends to the aggrandisement of France. The reasons alledged for the seizure of Piedmont are, "the abdication of the sovereign, the wish of the people, and the necessity of things." The menacing language which Bonaparte employs towards Holland shews, that he is displeased with the slight symptoms of a returning spirit of freedom which have appeared in that country. In Germany, the mediation of France is stated to have placed every thing on its proper footing. Great Britain is represented as having afforded the Chief Consul ground of complaint, by the non-evacuation of Malta and Egypt, and as being torn by two contending parties, one of which (the party of Mr. Windham) is so eager to renew the war, that to guard against their machina tions France must keep on foot an army of 500,000 men. A hope of peace, however, is afforded by Bonaparte, since "Great Britain alone cannot cope with France," and at present no continental power will join her in a war. According to an account delivered to the First Consul by the Minister of Finance, and published in the Moniteur, it would appear that the state of the French finances is much improved. In order to encourage agriculture and manufactures, a reduction is to be made in the land-tax for the year twelve, of about £.440,000. sterling, and the tax on doors and windows is no longer to attach to manufacto ries. The First Consul has again brought forward his civil code with some alterations. It is not probable that the legislative body will a second time oppose it. We have already mentioned the strong dislike which the French conscripts have shewn to the West India service. Letters from Jersey and Guernsey state, that numbers of them had found means to escape thither, and had since put themselves on board American vessels. His Majesty's message of the 8th inst. was inserted, without any comment, in the Moniteur of the 14th, and nothing has since been said upon it in that paper. In the other journals they have been less reserved, and Great Britain is charged with ambition and perfedy. The French funds had fallen about 8 per cent. We are assured from good authority, that a day or two after the account of what had passed in this country reached Paris, the following scene took place in the drawing-room of Madame Bonaparte, and in the presence of the ambassadors of the different powers, and of a numerous assemblage of persons of distinction. Bonaparte entered the saloon with an unusual alertness of manner, and, after saluting the company, he addressed himself to Lord Whitworth, in a tone sufficiently loud to be heard by all who were present"You know, my Lord, that a terrible storm has arisen between England and France." Lord Whitworth.-"Yes, General Consul, but it is to be hoped that this storm will be dissipated without any serious consequences." Bonaparte." It will be dissipated when England shall have evacuated Malta. If not, the cloud will burst, and the bolt |